It is well known in motor vehicles to provide an air bag module mounted beneath an opening in the instrument panel. The module typically includes a metal housing having opposing side walls and end walls defining an air bag deployment opening. The module also typically includes an air bag having a mouth portion mounted to the housing by an air bag retainer. The air bag retainer typically has retainer apertures which must be aligned with corresponding air bag apertures on the mouth portion of the air bag. Since the air bag is a flexible material, the air bag retainer is needed to provide support to the mouth portion of the air bag for easier attachment of the air bag to the housing. The housing has housing apertures which must be aligned with the retainer apertures and air bag apertures so that fasteners can be inserted through all three sets of aligned apertures to attach the air bag and retainer to the housing. An inflator is mounted beneath the air bag in the housing and discharges inflator gas to inflate the air bag when sensing predetermined vehicle conditions. The opening in the instrument panel is typically covered by a hinged cover door which is forced open by the deploying air bag.
Some air bag retainers are known in the prior art which include a hem portion into which an attachment rod is sewn. These are typically used with extruded housings having channels into which the rods and the air bag may be axially inserted. However, this arrangement requires an extruded housing and is not readily adaptable to deep drawn or plastic housings. In addition, this arrangement can be difficult to assemble since the rod with the air bag wrapped around the rod must be axially inserted through the channel which runs the length of the air bag housing. In addition, it is difficult to mount the air bag with rods on any more than two sides of the mouth portion of the air bag.
It is also known in the prior art to mount a cover door to the housing for covering the air bag module in the folded condition prior to deployment. The cover door is typically rigidly mounted to either the housing or the instrument panel by a plurality of fasteners. Thus, the cover door is typically not adjustable in the vertical direction for adapting to different tolerances during vehicle assembly.